IV Sunday of Advent.
From the doctrine of the Gospel. (Lc. 3.)
DAILY MEDITATIONS
OF THE MYSTERIES
OF OUR HOLY FAITH,
By the P. Alonso de Andrade
FROM THE COMPANY OF JESUS.
PRAYER TO BEGIN
By the sign of the Holy Cross, from our enemies delier us, Lord, our God. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
My Lord and my God: I firmly believe that you are here, that you see me, that you hear me. I adore you with deep reverence. I ask you for forgiveness of my sins and grace to make this time of prayer fruit. My Mother Immaculate, Saint Joseph, my father and lord, my guardian Angel: intercede for me.
Meditation
IV Sunday of Advent.
From the doctrine of the Gospel. (Lc. 3.)
Reigning Tiberius Caesar, etc., God sent his word on St. John, inhabitant of the desert, and came along the banks of the Jordan preaching baptism of penance, according to what Isaiah prophesied, voice of the one who cries in the desert, aperceive the ways to the Lord, etc.
POINT ONE. Consider that, as St. Peter Chrysologus says, God waited to come in the most needy time in the world, when he was most lost and the government in the most perverse and tyrannical men, and more desperate for remedy, to teach us that the day of the greatest need is the eve of the coming of God, and when we are more destituted from human favor, the divine is closer. Praise God for his piety and providence and for the care he has for his own, and trust in his goodness the more alone and helpless you find yourself from men, because then you have closer the visitation and favor of God, who always watches over your good.
POINT II. Consider who God chose as his precursor and preacher of his word, nor the very learned who attended the schools, nor the doctors who had such a great fame among men, nor the powerful and gifted of the century, but a San Juan, raised in the desert in solitude and penance, poor of everything temporal, but very rich in spiritual goods; unknown to men, but very well known and familiar with God and his angels: such is whom God appreciates and whom he esteems and chooses for his greatest enterprises; From which you must draw great appreciation of virtue, and from retirement and prayer, and from penance and poverty, and contempt for the gift and worth of men, and from everything that the world worships, because everything is nothing in God's compliance; and if you are his minister, learn the qualities that you must have so that his companies trust you, and those that those you must choose for those you have in charge of, not blinding yourself with the glow of human applause, nor with the luster of the nobility, Letters or value, but attending to holiness and virtue, and if you have it, the Lord will take you out of a desert for the greatest employment, if it is of his glory and service.
POINT III. Look at San Juan, who came down from the desert on the banks of the Jordan, barefoot and leg, dressed in skins, grown and disheveled hair, tanned by the inclement weather, poor and disinterested, preaching baptism of penance, esteemed and followed by the people, and countless men who heard him, and came to receive his baptism, scorched in desires of his salvation with the fire of his words: because these flames are what make the work, more than all the rhetoric and human artifice: join them, hear their words, and resolve to do penance of Your sins: consider the baptism flame, because it washes the soul of its stains, and for the softness and happiness with which it purifies it: raise your heart to God, and ask him for this water and tears of true penance, and together I sent preachers to his Church of holiness, zeal and spirit, like St. John, to light it in living flames.
POINT IV. Have as happiness to you those words that St. John preached, as if you heard them from his mouth: See the way of the Lord: see that he is near, and he wants to come to your soul: tell him the way, raving the mountains of pride and tearing out the thorns of the vices and the disordered affections of the riches and sensual gifts, and arranging your soul with mortification and penance: turn your eyes to the past life, and contemplate carefully and slowly the paths you have brought here, and try to straighten them in the future so that the Lord comes To retire in your soul: ask him to dispose of you and shake hands to get up with fervor, and begin to serve him from this day.
PRAYER TO END EVERY DAY
I thank you, my God, for the good purposes, affections and inspirations that you have communicated to me in this meditation. I ask you for help to put them to work. My Mother Immaculate, Saint Joseph, my father and lord, my guardian Angel: intercede for me.
Daily offer of works
Come Holy Spirit
Inflames our hearts
In the redeeming longings of the Heart of Christ
So that we really offer
Our people and works
In union with Him
For the redemption of the world
My Lord and my God Jesus Christ
For the Immaculate Heart of Mary
I consecrate myself to your Heart
And I offer myself with you to the Father
In your Holy Sacrifice of the altar
With my prayer and my work
Today's sufferings and joys
In reparation for our sins
And that your Kingdom may come to us.
I ask you in particular
For the Pope and his intentions,
For our Bishop and his intentions,
For our parish priest and his intentions.
Church of the Savior of Toledo at 21:00:00
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